Geelong performer, director, choreographer and educator Stacey Carmichael heads to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this week as a member of two works, Project Connect’s a/lone and Anglesea Performing Arts’ Shadow of Angels. Matt Hewson caught up with her to talk about the journey that has led her to this point.
In 2003 Stacey Carmichael performed in her first stage show, playing the part of Cecily in the Peninsula Players’ production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
Having come into acting as a self-described “painfully shy” young person, the review of her performance by much-loved local theatre critic and performing arts figure Dennis Mitchell made a huge impression on her, one that lingers to this day.
“It was my first acting thing, and Dennis Mitchell, the reviewer for the local papers, wrote a review; I’ve still got it,” Stacey said.
“It said something like, ‘This is a talent to watch out for’, or something along those lines. People had told me I had a great presence on stage, and I always knew I was passionate about it, but that was the first time (something like that) was in print.
“I was like, oh my gosh, someone believes in me, someone thinks I’m good enough to do this.
“I kept the article, and it was 20 years ago now, but that’s always stayed with me. I always go back to that article when the self-doubt creeps in, that someone believed in me then.”
Stacey, who grew up in Clifton Springs, had been dancing since the age of four and joined local acting group the Jongleurs at her mother’s behest to counter her shyness.
After she finished her schooling at Bellarine Secondary College her former maths teacher Tony Wright invited her to join local theatre troupe the Peninsula Players.
Stacey soon began to meld her twin loves of acting and dancing, choreographing and directing musical theatre in the region.
“Meeting (Impetus Dance’s) Sherree Nash expanded my world and I got involved with dance in Geelong and met a lot more creative people,” she said.
“I started auditioning for local musicals and moved into choreographing a lot more as well. Geelong Lyric, Footlight, Geelong Rep, they were the main ones I was working with through my 20s,” she said.
Stacey said her beginnings in dance had naturally led her to musicals, but as she continued to broaden her experience she began to move into more serious and intense works.
After completing a degree in dance and drama at Deakin University, she formed her own dance company, Collision, with the invaluable support of the Potato Shed’s Rob MacLeod.
“(Rob) was another massive supporter of mine; when I finished studying I started my own contemporary dance company and he supported and encouraged me,” she said.
“For ten years we were doing original contemporary dance works there, and it was really him driving us and supporting us that kept it going. Rob created a space, not just physically, but a space where you could be an artist.
“And now that’s what the Arts Centre is doing too. Through the Creative Engine program they’ve given us access to a bigger community, which is important because being an independent artist in regional Victoria can be isolating.”
Since 2016 Stacey has continued to study, travelling to London in 2016 to complete the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art’s Shakespeare Summer School and again 2019 to take part in an international residency program at UK theatre company Frantic Assembly.
In between London expeditions, she undertook the National Institute of Dramatic Arts’ Directors Summer School in Sydney.
Last year, Stacey successfully applied for one of the Geelong Arts Centre’s (GAC) Creative Engine grants to begin Project Connect, which provided her with $1000 and studio space to begin developing a new work in conjunction with five other creatives.
Stacey’s long-time mentors Janine McKenzie and Iris Walshe-Howling joined Project Connect, as did musician and composer Kirstin Honey, fellow performer Xavier McGettigan and projection designer Melinda Chapman.
Using group-devised processes inspired by Stacey’s work with Frantic Assembly, Project Connect embarked on an investigation of loneliness and being alone.
“When we wrote the grant submission it was all about connection; in a post-COVID world, loneliness is a thing,” Stacey said.
“We did a lot of research, and the statistics on loneliness are horrifying. It kills people. So we went on this deep dive into the topic.
“We interviewed a whole heap of people on their experience of loneliness and aloneness, took those interviews and created verbatim text, and then we explored them in the space using the group-devised process.
“We’d play in the space for hours responding to that text physically, verbally, and with Kirsten Honey, who’s a genius, in the space with us the whole time.”
The developing work got great feedback from Creative Engine and Project Connect received another GAC grant to complete it fully, which has resulted in physical theatre piece a/lone.
“It’s an episodic work, like a montage of experiences of the full spectrum of loneliness and aloneness,” Stacey said.
“So, the joy of enjoying being alone, the pain of loneliness, and what drives different people’s experiences to those places.
“We’ve shown it to a few audiences now and it just resonates. People really see themselves in the work, because it doesn’t draw conclusions, it’s an exploration.”
This week Stacey travels to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival, the largest performing arts festival in the world, where she will perform in both a/lone and Anglesea Performing Arts’ Shadows of Angels at Edinburgh’s Greenside.
“A/lone’s week one, we do seven performances of that, then we have one day to swap over and bump in Shadows,” she said.
“Then we’ve got six performances of that. It’s two solid weeks of performing. Then Xavier’s dance company, Attitude Dance is doing their show called Perfect Pairing, which is wine paired with dance.
“Greenside is a little black box theatre… it’s intimate, an incredible venue. We’re lucky, they took all three works because we wanted to do them back to back so we could support each other.”
Looking back at her performing life so far, Stacey said she felt lucky to have had so many supportive and like-minded people beside her on the journey.
“Dennis (Mitchell) has passed away now, but I went on to work with his company, Theatre of the Winged Unicorn, which his wife runs, and they’ve been a really important part of my creative and friendship circle,” she said.
“And I’ve been really fortunate to have really influential people who have guided me and supported me through. It’s a hard industry to stick at and I think by this age a lot of people have given up.”
